The acquittal of Christian Borg this week on charges of perjury is a vivid illustration of the rule of criminals we currently live under. Borg is allegedly a notorious organised crime boss. He came to the public’s attention about three years ago when he was charged with organising the kidnap and violent interrogation of one Carlos Schembri. He threatened to mutilate him and rape his sister, or was it the other way around? The details get fuzzy.
The kidnap and beating appear to have come after Schembri allegedly stole a van from Borg’s car leasing company. The director of that company is Joseph Camenzuli, the Labour Party’s former official photographer.
That’s not Borg’s only business. He held the local franchise for the car hire brand Goldcar until his licence was withdrawn by the transport regulator “after numerous, repeated and extremely serious complaints of malpractice”. That didn’t matter. He signed up for another brand – Sicily by Car – and used it to win a government tender to supply his cars to the traffic enforcement agency and, I kid you not, the transport regulator. The irony escaped most people’s attention as these things do. By the way, Camenzuli is also the director of the car rental business.
Borg also operated a car dealership named No Deposit Cars. Several “customers” reported threats, extortion and stalking, which forced them to make payments to the company out of fear. The police wouldn’t touch Borg with a barge pole, so Jason Azzopardi requested and obtained a magistrate’s order for an inquiry into alleged money laundering, fraud, criminal association, theft and other violent crimes perpetrated by Borg and other leaders of his gang. An anti-mafia investigation is underway, but our police force will have nothing to do with it.
Borg’s wealth is extensive, and its provenance is apparently difficult to explain. Between 2016 and 2020, he invested over €2 million in properties without resorting to bank loans. One of those lucrative ‘investments’ involved Robert Abela. At that time, Abela was not the prime minister but an MP and the lawyer for his predecessor. Abela purchased a field and sold it to Borg a few months later. In addition to billing Joseph Muscat for legal services, Abela also represented the Planning Authority at the time. He finalised the deal with Borg after permits had been granted to convert the field into a construction site. He gained €45,000 from the swindle, or is it more polite to say ‘arrangement’?
This week, a court acquitted Borg of having perjured himself when testifying to another court in 2021. The magistrate hearing him four years ago ordered the prosecution. That’s all the magistrate can do. Once ordered, it’s up to the police to prove the case to another magistrate. Borg was acquitted this week because the police failed to produce in evidence a record of the (false) evidence he had given, which is the prosecutorial equivalent of trying to make an omelette without eggs.
Was it a mistake? Let’s see. We learned that Superintendent Gabriel Micallef led the botched prosecution. The man has a notable history. In 2014, while still an inspector, he was on the scene minutes after Home Minister Manuel Mallia’s chauffeur fired gunshots at a car as he pursued it down a road tunnel because it drove too closely to the government vehicle he was in. Inspector Micallef was investigated for tampering with evidence after bystanders claimed he had coerced them into surrendering video footage they had recorded of the driver and the other individual in an argument. It was revealed that Micallef’s sister was the chauffeur’s girlfriend. After a period of forced leave, Micallef avoided punishment. His police career did not end, though some might argue it ought to have.
A person who appears to behave like a gangster feeding off public funds managed by politicians and who in turn is protected by a politician- Manuel Delia
Three years later, it did look like his career would end prematurely. He lost his police job after he let a man who had just been sentenced to jail walk out of the court and go to prison by bus. The following year, however, all was forgiven. Home Affairs Minister Michael Farrugia reinstated Micallef to the corps.
Two things happened within minutes of Borg’s acquittal after Micallef botched his prosecution this week. The police said they would appeal the decision. They made that statement to control public annoyance, even though they know full well they won’t be able to present in appeal any evidence they failed to produce in the first instance.
Also, Farrugia, no longer a minister, attacked the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation for damaging Malta’s reputation as a country halfway committed to fighting corruption. It was as if the Daphne Foundation had reinstated an alleged bent cop to the force so he could be put to good use when an alleged gangster with political connections needed protection from justice.
Incidentally, in one of her all too frequent fits of jaw-dropping foresight, Daphne Caruana Galizia had written about Micallef even before the rest of the country became aware of his existence in the aftermath of that early incident for which he was investigated for tampering with evidence.
He was an anti-drug cop at the time, and Daphne wondered when the police were going to do something about sequestered cocaine finding its way into the wrong places under Micallef’s watch.
So there you have it, the picture postcard illustration of government by delinquency. A person who appears to behave like a gangster feeding off public funds managed by politicians and who in turn is protected by a politician. Meanwhile, on behalf of the victims, a lawyer asks for and obtains an inquiry into Borg’s affairs.
So, the government assassinates the character of the lawyer and changes the law to abolish the right to solicit inquiries without reference to the alleged bent cop.
They do that for one Christian Borg who now, having been acquitted of the charges of perjury, is, for life, immune from prosecution for the same case under the double jeopardy principle.
Can you imagine what they’re prepared to do for Joseph Muscat, to whom they owe much more?